The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

Ambivalence related to potential lifestyle changes following preventive cardiovascular consultations in general practice: A qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Motivational interviewing approaches are currently recommended in primary prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in general practice in Denmark, based on an empirical and multidisciplinary body of scientific knowledge about the importance of motivation for successful lifestyle change among patients at risk of lifestyle related diseases. This study aimed to explore and describe motivational aspects related to potential lifestyle changes among patients at increased risk of CVD following preventive consultations in general practice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Individual interviews with 12 patients at increased risk of CVD within 2 weeks after the consultation. Grounded theory was used in the analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ambivalence related to potential lifestyle changes was the core motivational aspect in the interviews, even though the patients rarely verbalised this experience during the consultations. The patients experienced ambivalence in the form of conflicting feelings about lifestyle change. Analysis showed that these feelings interacted with their reflections in a concurrent process. Analysis generated a typology of five different ambivalence sub-types: perception, demand, information, priority and treatment ambivalence.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Ambivalence was a common experience in relation to motivation among patients at increased risk of CVD. Five different ambivalence sub-types were found, which clinicians may use to explore and resolve ambivalence in trying to aid patients to adopt lifestyle changes. Future research is needed to explore whether motivational interviewing and other cognitive approaches can be enhanced by exploring ambivalence in more depth, to ensure that lifestyle changes are made and sustained. Further studies with a wider range of patient characteristics are required to investigate the generalisability of the results.</p

The PDZ Domain as a Complex Adaptive System

Specific protein associations define the wiring of protein interaction networks and thus control the organization and functioning of the cell as a whole. Peptide recognition by PDZ and other protein interaction domains represents one of the best-studied classes of specific protein associations. However, a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between selectivity and promiscuity commonly observed in the interactions mediated by peptide recognition modules as well as its functional meaning remain elusive. To address these questions in a comprehensive manner, two large populations of artificial and natural peptide ligands of six archetypal PDZ domains from the synaptic proteins PSD95 and SAP97 were generated by target-assisted iterative screening (TAIS) of combinatorial peptide libraries and by synthesis of proteomic fragments, correspondingly. A comparative statistical analysis of affinity-ranked artificial and natural ligands yielded a comprehensive picture of known and novel PDZ ligand specificity determinants, revealing a hitherto unappreciated combination of specificity and adaptive plasticity inherent to PDZ domain recognition. We propose a reconceptualization of the PDZ domain in terms of a complex adaptive system representing a flexible compromise between the rigid order of exquisite specificity and the chaos of unselective promiscuity, which has evolved to mediate two mutually contradictory properties required of such higher order sub-cellular organizations as synapses, cell junctions, and others – organizational structure and organizational plasticity/adaptability. The generalization of this reconceptualization in regard to other protein interaction modules and specific protein associations is consistent with the image of the cell as a complex adaptive macromolecular system as opposed to clockwork

Simvastatin is associated with a reduced incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Statins are a class of medications that reduce cholesterol by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Whether statins can benefit patients with dementia remains unclear because of conflicting results. We hypothesized that some of the confusion in the literature might arise from differences in efficacy of different statins. We used a large database to compare the action of several different statins to investigate whether some statins might be differentially associated with a reduction in the incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed data from the decision support system of the US Veterans Affairs database, which contains diagnostic, medication and demographic information on 4.5 million subjects. The association of lovastatin, simvastatin and atorvastatin with dementia was examined with Cox proportional hazard models for subjects taking statins compared with subjects taking cardiovascular medications other than statins, after adjusting for covariates associated with dementia or Parkinson's disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed that simvastatin is associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of dementia in subjects ≥65 years, using any of three models. The first model incorporated adjustment for age, the second model included adjusted for three known risk factors for dementia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, and the third model incorporated adjustment for the Charlson index, which is an index that provides a broad assessment of chronic disease. Data were obtained for over 700000 subjects taking simvastatin and over 50000 subjects taking atorvastatin who were aged >64 years. Using model 3, the hazard ratio for incident dementia for simvastatin and atorvastatin are 0.46 (CI 0.44–0.48, <it>p </it>< 0.0001) and 0.91 (CI 0.80–1.02, <it>p </it>= 0.11), respectively. Lovastatin was not associated with a reduction in the incidence of dementia. Simvastatin also exhibited a reduced hazard ratio for newly acquired Parkinson's disease (HR 0.51, CI 0.4–0.55, <it>p </it>< 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Simvastatin is associated with a strong reduction in the incidence of dementia and Parkinson's disease, whereas atorvastatin is associated with a modest reduction in incident dementia and Parkinson's disease, which shows only a trend towards significance.</p

Post-eruptive flooding of Santorini caldera and implications for tsunami generation

Caldera-forming eruptions of island volcanoes generate tsunamis by the interaction of different eruptive phenomena with the sea. Such tsunamis are a major hazard, but forward models of their impacts are limited by poor understanding of source mechanisms. The caldera-forming eruption of Santorini in the Late Bronze Age is known to have been tsunamigenic, and caldera collapse has been proposed as a mechanism. Here, we present bathymetric and seismic evidence showing that the caldera was not open to the sea during the main phase of the eruption, but was flooded once the eruption had finished. Inflow of water and associated landsliding cut a deep, 2.0-2.5 km(3), submarine channel, thus filling the caldera in less than a couple of days. If, as at most such volcanoes, caldera collapse occurred syn-eruptively, then it cannot have generated tsunamis. Entry of pyroclastic flows into the sea, combined with slumping of submarine pyroclastic accumulations, were the main mechanisms of tsunami production

Socio-demographic and health-related factors associated with cognitive impairment in the elderly in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cognitive impairment is an age-related condition as the rate of cognitive decline rapidly increases with aging. It is especially important to better understand factors involving in cognitive decline for the countries where the older population is growing rapidly. The aim of this study was to examine the association between socio-demographic and health-related factors and cognitive impairment in the elderly in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analysed data from 2119 persons aged 65 years and over who participated in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey. Cognitive impairment was defined as having the score of the Mini Mental State Examination lower than 24. The χ²test and multiple logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between cognitive impairment and variables of socio-demography, chronic diseases, geriatric conditions, lifestyle, and dietary factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 22.2%. Results of multivariate analysis indicated that low education, being single, low social support, lower lipid level, history of stroke, physical inactivity, non-coffee drinking and poor physical function were associated with a higher risk of cognitive impairment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Most of the characteristics in relation to cognitive impairment identified in our analysis are potentially modifiable. These results suggest that improving lifestyle behaviours such as regular exercise and increased social participation could help prevent or decrease the risk of cognitive impairment. Further investigations using longitudinal data are needed to clarify our findings.</p

Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Early Childhood: The Implications of Color-Consciousness and Colorblindness for Prejudice Development

This chapter outlines how early childhood teachers can bring children into conversations surrounding race and racism by drawing on literature on how parents of color discuss these topics. Although educators’ practices surrounding race and racism remain largely unexplored, decades of developmental psychological research indicate that parents of color engage in ethnic-racial socialization practices that are beneficial for children (Hughes et al., 2006). The established dimensions of parental ethnic-racial socialization include (1) cultural socialization, or teaching children about their ethnic heritage and instilling ethnic pride; (2) preparation for bias, or teaching children about racism and preparing them to face discrimination; (3) promotion of mistrust, or warning children about the need to distance themselves from other racial groups; and (4) egalitarianism, or emphasizing the similarities between and equality of all races (Hughes et al. 2006). One consideration to take into account from a developmental perspective is that children’s level of cognitive development impacts how they interpret messages about race. This chapter draws a link between parental ethnic-racial socialization and extends this body of work to school settings, with a focus on teachers. The ideologies of colorblindness and color-consciousness are discussed throughout

Metabolic inactivation of estrogens in breast tissue by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase enzymes: an overview

The breast tissue is the site of major metabolic conversions of estradiol (E(2)) mediated by specific cytochromes P450 hydroxylations and methylation by catechol-O-methytransferase. In addition to E(2 )itself, recent findings highlight the significance of 4-hydroxylated estrogen metabolites as chemical mediators and their link to breast cancer development and progression, whereas, in opposition, 2-methoxylated estrogens appear to be protective. Recent data also indicate that breast tissue possesses enzymatic machinery to inactivate and eliminate E(2 )and its oxidized and methoxylated metabolites through conjugation catalyzed by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs), which involves the covalent addition of glucuronic acid. In opposition to other metabolic pathways of estrogen, the UGT-mediated process leads to the formation of glucuronides that are devoid of biologic activity and are readily excreted from the tissue into the circulation. This review addresses the most recent findings on the identification of UGT enzymes that are responsible for the glucuronidation of E(2 )and its metabolites, and evidence regarding their potential role in breast cancer

Copy Number Analysis Identifies Novel Interactions Between Genomic Loci in Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease displaying complex genomic alterations, and consequently, it has been difficult to determine the most relevant copy number alterations with the scale of studies to date. We obtained genome-wide copy number alteration (CNA) data from four different SNP array platforms, with a final data set of 398 ovarian tumours, mostly of the serous histological subtype. Frequent CNA aberrations targeted many thousands of genes. However, high-level amplicons and homozygous deletions enabled filtering of this list to the most relevant. The large data set enabled refinement of minimal regions and identification of rare amplicons such as at 1p34 and 20q11. We performed a novel co-occurrence analysis to assess cooperation and exclusivity of CNAs and analysed their relationship to patient outcome. Positive associations were identified between gains on 19 and 20q, gain of 20q and loss of X, and between several regions of loss, particularly 17q. We found weak correlations of CNA at genomic loci such as 19q12 with clinical outcome. We also assessed genomic instability measures and found a correlation of the number of higher amplitude gains with poorer overall survival. By assembling the largest collection of ovarian copy number data to date, we have been able to identify the most frequent aberrations and their interactions